Joseph Farah Describes the Controversy with Ann Coulter

I give Joseph Farah a lot of credit for the way he has handled the controversy over disinviting Ann Coulter to the the Taking America Back Conference in Miama. Coulter, sadly, has behaved like a spoiled child having a tantrum name-calling and spewing vitriol. She reminds me of the screaming meemies of the National Organization for Women as she uses extreme language to attack and linguistically disembowel someone who has supported her over the years. What a sideshow. The left must be loving it!

I could never imagine anyone describing Coulter as a lady, but am, nevertheless,  amazed to see her act in a way that can only be described with a word I don't use. She is being coddled and pampered by the homosexuals for her betrayal of her base. No surprise. She appears to be lapping it up which just further demeans her.

Farah has responded as a gentleman, treating Coulter with respect even though she doesn't see it. The article below describing everything that occurred reminds me of the Old Testament story in 2 Maccabees. During the reign of the tyrant Antiochus, the Jews were forced to consume meat offered to idols. The elderly scribe Eleazar refused. Those in charge of the ritual meal urged him to bring his own meat and pretend to eat what was forbidden. He responded firmly, refusing to scandalize others and bring shame and dishonor to his old age. "I will leave to the young a noble example of how to die willingly and generously for the revered and holy laws."

What's significant here is the response of Eleazar's associates. His courage convicted them of their own evil. They "became hostile toward him" and immediately led him to the instrument of torture, no doubt inflicting as much pain as possible. Does this not sound like the raging Ann Coulter? 

As my mom used to say, "A guilty conscience needs no accuser."

God bless Joseph Farah and World Net Daily. If the conservative movement wants to mean anything in this country, it needs to stand firm on the moral issues, issues that have been supported by moral governments throughout history. Fiscal issues are minor in the culture wars. Moral issues (abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, special rights for homosexuals, hate speech laws, etc) are what really matter most. Those who ignore the central issues can get a pass as "moderates." Those of us who stand for life and the traditional family are labeled rabid extremists. Wear that label as a badge of honor!

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I guess I hit a nerve

Joseph Farah

Posted: August 20, 2010 1:00 am Eastern

World Net Daily

© 2010

I'm sad that I have lost Ann Coulter as a friend.

But I have no regrets about my action this week in disinviting her to be a keynote speaker at our Taking America Back National Conference in Miami next month.

It was the right thing to do under the circumstances – no matter the consequences.

I guess you could say she didn't take it well.

She told the Daily Caller I dumped her for publicity.

"Farah is doing this for PUBLICITY and publicity alone," she wrote in an e-mail.

She expressed anger that WND had quoted from an e-mail exchange between the two of us.

"He's a swine for using my private e-mails politely answering him," she wrote. "Why would he do such a despicable thing … for PUBLICITY."

The evidence that I am a "publicity whore," according to Coulter, is that my "promotion of the birther nonsense (long ago disproved by my newspaper, Human Events, also Sweetness & Light, American Spectator and National Review, etc., etc., etc.) He's the only allegedly serious conservative pushing the birther thing. For ONE reason: to get his hits on his website."

There's more angry vitriol, which you can read for yourself, if you like.
But I want to begin with the issue of constitutional eligibility.

Coulter is an attorney. She studied law. I believe she knows, as any informed person does, that Barack Obama has never proven his constitutional eligibility for office – not even close. Worse yet, he was never asked to do so by any controlling legal authority, which is an outrage that needs to be rectified.

That has been my approach and the approach of my news agency from the beginning. I'm proud of the work we have done on this and continue to do. Since we began this campaign, the tide has turned. According to the latest CNN poll, at least 58 percent of the American people – many of them Ann Coulter's biggest fans – have seen the light and don't believe Barack Obama's birth story. Far from being about publicity, this campaign has cost WND dearly on that front. As I have pointed out publicly before, I have not appeared on even one television news show for the last 15 months as a direct result of my commitment to this issue. I don't think I have to point out how frequently Ann Coulter has appeared in that time – often for saying some rather provocative things.

But there's one more point I would like to make about her overreaction to being disinvited to the WND conference.
I hadn't planned to share publicly the plea I made to Ann to change her mind about her plan to validate and affirm the legitimacy of GOProud and its Homocon event. But now I think I must. It's important to know that my communications with Ann prior to our decision was part of a broader effort to reach out to several media celebrities who seemed to be compromising on a critical moral issue. One of them, a personality more famous and popular than Coulter, immediately saw the light and made a correction – Ann did not.

Here it is in its entirety with one exception, the reference to that other personality:
Until now, I have asked you a couple of pointed questions about your participation in the Homocon event.

Now, in the Christian spirit of Matthew 18, I want to tell you what I think in very clear terms. We don't really know each other well. But I still consider you a friend and a fellow freedom fighter.

Homosexuality is a sin, according to the Bible. God calls it an abomination. Paul (Romans 1:18-32) calls it a judgment on societies that turn away from God. I'm sure it has not escaped your attention that America is now one of those societies. Meanwhile, we have people – homosexual and heterosexual – who take pleasure in the increase of this abomination and its acceptance, just as Paul said.

This is how homosexuality literally destroys societies.

I know you don't want to see America destroyed. I've read all your books, and I'm a fan of your columns. I know you want what's best for our country – and I believe you're a sincere Christian.

Whether you believe it or not, or whether or not it is your intent, your acceptance of this speaking engagement is affirming GOProud, which is, I'm sure you've noticed, winning the hearts and minds in the conservative movement – with CPAC, Grover Norquist and others who don't necessarily bring a Judeo-Christian worldview to the party. GOProud is having a field day marketing you and legitimizing itself further in the conservative movement through its association with you.

It's a very big deal, Ann, and it's bigger than you. Glenn Beck threw in the towel last week on same-sex marriage, saying since it doesn't affect him, it doesn't matter. Materialistic utilitarianism – much of the conservative movement is moving in that direction.

I believe this is a time when God is calling his people to stand up for what's right. I'm afraid you're really blurring the lines for many of your fans.

Speaking to this group is not the same as speaking to a group of college students anywhere. Presumably, you speak to them not just for money, but to change their minds. The only way you might change some minds and hearts at Homocon is to confront them with their sin. I don't get the impression that is what you are being paid to do. These are folks who are being sheltered from the consequences of their sin. By giving a standard conservative rah-rah speech to them, you are embracing them as part of the conservative movement.

GOProud truly represents a blight on the conservative movement. The more the movement embraces them and accepts them, the more it will render the conservative movement useless and irrelevant.

Think of the moment your acceptance of this engagement came – just after a judge rejected the will of the people of California on Proposition 8. That was judicial tyranny at its worst, and it came from a self-interested homosexual judge.

In case you haven't figured it out, I am imploring you not to do this thing. … I really think it is a big mistake for you, one that has consequences for the movement you love and for the country you love.

I promise you this will be the last missive you receive from me on this topic unless you ask for more.

And that was that. I never heard from Ann Coulter, again – until her now famous name-calling fusillade.

You be the judge.
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Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate. He is the author or co-author of 13 books, including his latest, "The Tea Party Manifesto: A Vision for an American Rebirth," and his classic, "Taking America Back: A Radical Plan to Revive Freedom, Morality and Justice," now in its third edition and 14 printings. Farah is the former editor of the legendary Sacramento Union and other major-market daily newspapers.